Coupling of Pi2 wave energy in the inner magnetosphere as inferred from low-latitude ground observations

Abstract

Taking advantage of high time-resolution (1 s) geomagnetic field measurements obtained at low-latitude stations, we investigated frequency differences of Pi2 pulsations between the dayside and the nightside. Firstly, we examined two Pi2 cases globally observed by multiple ground stations and found that the dominant frequency peaks at the dayside showed latitudinal dependence, i.e., the higher (lower) frequency peak was predominant at lower (higher) latitude. We also noticed that the dominant Pi2 frequency on the nightside was apparently higher than that on the dayside. We argue that the multiple frequency peaks observed on the ground are harmonics of a plasmaspheric cavity resonance mode (CRM) and that the latitudinal dependence of the dominant frequency peaks may result from the energy coupling between the CRM and field line resonance (FLR) occurred in the near Earth space. We also argue that the frequency difference between the dayside and the nightside could be caused by the reason that a higher harmonic was observed in the nightside plasmasphere but was not effectively observed in the dayside. In addition, we statistically examined 829 Pi2 events that were simultaneously recorded at Kakioka (KAK, Maglat=27.2°) and Jicamarca (JIC, Maglat=0.0°), the two stations separated by ∼10 h in local time (LT) and one of them (JIC) is located at the dip equator. We found that the Pi2 frequency observed at KAK on the nightside was higher than that observed at JIC on the dayside on average. After investigating the occurrence histogram of the frequency difference (Δf=fJIC?fKAK) for the events simultaneously observed at KAK and JIC, we found that close to half of the events had the identical frequency (|Δf|<1.0 mHz). The statistical results are consistent with the facts reflected by case studies.